Poland's Refineries Up Mideast Oil Intake, Squeeze Russia's Urals
Oil refineries in Poland have increased the amount of sea borne crude it receives from the Middle East at the expense of Russian flagship blend Urals, Reuters tracking data showed on Tuesday.
According to the data, Poland's Baltic Sea port of Gdansk will receive at least five cargoes from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, with total volumes of almost 500,000 tonnes in July.
According to traders, the port will handle around 260,000 tonnes of oil from Saudi Arabia, around 130,000 tonnes of oil from Iraqi's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and around 80,000 tonnes of Azeri Light grade.
Russia has been muscling in on Asian markets, where Saudi Arabia was once the unchallenged dominant supplier. Riyadh has responded by aggressive discounting of its oil sales in Europe.
Urals's imports to Gdansk have halved to two to three cargoes per month this year. In 2015, the port received around 7 million tonnes of the Russian grade, or around six cargoes per month.
(Reporting by Gleb Gorodyankin and Olga Yagova; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin)
